‘The Mummy’ Revived Over at Dimension as Low Budget Fare

While capturing what Paranormal Activity had is like winning the lottery, the lesson it should be delivering is that a studio can make a good movie for a modest budget. Sh*t, with the announcement of J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 this morning, it had me thinking back to the success of Cloverfield, and then shaking my head in dismay. Not a single studio learned a thing from Abrams. It took a $15k indie film to knock some sense into these fools. Anyways, Dimension Films, a studio not known for being smart or frugal, must have received a lobotomy as they’re putting a low budget spin on the resurrection of The Mummy! Read on for the skinny.From the LA Times:

“Dimension Films, the genre label run by Bob Weinstein, is making a deal to develop The Mummy Archives, described as a more artful and modestly budgeted version of “The Mummy,” the insanely lucrative Brendan Fraser franchise.

The film will focus on several young people who are haunted by a mummy curse, with the action playing out very much in the unseen realm, as both the audience and the characters frequently experience the effects of the curse without seeing it explicitly.

The project comes with some appealing names: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, a young Spanish genre director who attracted quite a bit of heat a couple years back for his Spanish-language thriller “The King of the Hill” (“El Rey de la Montana,” which the Weinstein Co. released in the U.S.), is in final negotiations to write the screenplay and direct the film. Douglas Wick, the veteran producer behind mega-hits such as “Gladiator,” generated the idea and is in final negotiations to produce the film through his Red Wagon Entertainment banner.

In its 11 years of existence, Universal’s “Mummy” franchise has generated more than $1.2 billion in global box office across three films. But those movies are CG-dependent and pricey to make, and in the wake of “Paranormal Activity,” studios are looking for the big breakout that doesn’t cost big money (including companies like Dimension that have always been budget-conscious). The budget for “Mummy Archives” is expected to be in the $5-million range, a number that allows for some lean and mean storytelling but isn’t high enough to spook anyone.“